For ages now I’ve been working on a new doll – I’m known I
suppose in the blogging world mostly for the ‘Tilda’ dolls I’ve made in the past, however, I
wanted to try to make a more grown up doll, with more detail. These two have
taken me months, and although I suppose they’re alright, they’re not really
what I hoped to achieve ……….. the problem is, I never had an exact picture in mind other than ‘more
grown up’!! These two were meant to be the prototypes (or do you only have
those in cars!!?), but I got rather sick of them during the process, because
they were sooooooo fiddly and time consuming! And at the same time I was itching to get back to a
quilt I started ……….urmmm, 3½ - 4 years ago!!!! So as a result, although I managed to finish
these, I won’t be bothering to make any more after all – these can just sit in my sewing room and collect dust! What
I do love about them though are the fabrics I’ve used ….. lots of silk – very luxurious!
Anyway, on to doll No. 1 …. Note here, I haven’t come up with a name for
either of them yet, just No. 1 and No. 2, so any suggestions would be welcome:
So , Doll No. 1:
Quite dramatic, with her long black hair and striking red
dress! Her dress is made of a beautiful stripe deep red dupion silk (bear in
mind what digital photographs do to colours!). It has a dropped waist, trimmed
with red rose beads. Now excuse me for being a bit rude, but I want to show you
what’s going on underneath too.
Under the dress is a lovely red tulle
underskirt, and under that, a pair of frilly drawers ……. oh naughty!!
Her shoes
are like a ballet slipper with the ribbon tied around her legs. Did you spot the cute little ballet shoes necklace above (made that myself too!!).
Now you must excuse
this piccie too, because I’m attempting to show you her cleavage, because I actually
gave her boobies (more grown up you see) and her nose!! I never like to see the
drawn on noses on dolls – they just don’t look right (not to me anyway), so I was
amazed when I discovered a method (Waldorf dolls book)
which shows you a clever way to make a good head shape by using two layers of fabric. I adapted the
method by adding a nose from shaped fimo/polymer clay (my invention!), which I then
stuck on to the underneath skin layer: then when you add the second skin layer,
you have something like a real nose – using the two layers of skin method is
such a simple idea when you know how – flipping, flipping fiddly though!! Having
made the nose, I then came up with the idea of making her boobies in the same
way!! The trouble is (photo trouble again!) you can’t really define them in the
picture – they are there though!
Finally, because I always like my dolls to have some little accessory,
I made this little charm dingly, dangly thing.
Doll No. 2! She looks a little more wild with that hair!
I had a regency theme in my mind, hence the ‘Empire line’
style dress made again of dupion silk, but in the most beautiful
coffee/chocolatey shade, and her little cropped contrasting jacket is made of Silk
Tullah – what a nightmare to cut though – it frayed like crazy, so DO NOT look
too closely!!
Now when I say these were prototypes, what I mean for example is No. 2 has a choker crucifix necklace and the reason for the choker, is that I made a real mess of attaching her head to the neck and the only way to cover it up was to do that – it almost works!
And underneath we go again!! How about these matching silk frilly
knickers and sexy stockings, held up with ribbon garters ……… I just love this
detail – even though it’s a bit rude!! LOL
The finishing touch for No. 2 is this little blue velvet bag, with antique brass eyelets. I might decorate this yet (can’t decide) with some beads or something, as it looks a bit plain.
So, after all that, I’m getting back to a bit of quilting
for a while, maybe a bit of cross-stitch too here and there, and so here’s a
sneaky peak at my current project (this isn’t the aforementioned 3½ year old
quilt by the way!! LOL), it’s something I picked up at the Malvern Quilt show I
went to last weekend, which I hope to have ready to show you very soon.
But that’s it for now!
I love number 2. Not sure about a name yet.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I missed this post! Your dolls are beautiful with so much detail. Scarlet and Lizzie suitable names maybe? I think you should make more but maybe find a way to simplify them if they are too fiddly to make. x
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I missed this post! Your dolls are beautiful with so much detail. Scarlet and Lizzie suitable names maybe? I think you should make more but maybe find a way to simplify them if they are too fiddly to make. x
ReplyDeleteYour dolls are delightful Julia.
ReplyDeleteThe first one puts me in mind of a Russian ballerina for some reason so Tatiana is my suggestion for her name LOL.
The fabrics you've used for their outfits are gorgeous.
I agree that doll making is a very fiddly and time consuming business.
I still have a second Tilda doll in the works but this will be the last!
Margaret